100% agree that the tactical technologies are racing forward, and it's apparent to everyone that things like self driving cars on freeways will be available within the next two-three years, and that sensor and response technologies will make a lot of the typical flying events a lot safer - takeoffs and landings are just two of them.

Where I don't think the technology is moving is on the executive level, which is where having a highly trained and knowledgeable flight crew in the plane is invaluable.

I'm guessing that any trained and qualified pilot of a large commercial airliner (which I am not), can immediately come up with 100 different scenarios for which there is no technology apparent in the next 15 years.

Put another way, in 10 years, 99.99%+ of the time, automated systems will be doing all of the actual takeoffs/flying/landing, but that 0.01% of the time is why we'll keep a flight crew in the cockpit.

Even the amount of automation we have today leads to the very real danger of pilot boredom: what do they do to keep busy when the flight is on auto for most of the trip and they are stuck in the cockpit just monitoring things? At least if they could fly the plane, they would have something to do! Imagine if your job was just to monitor the computer program itself, you'd get paid (yeh!), but not having anything to do would take a toll!

Check out:

http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/hazards-aut...

If we automate even more, the problem just becomes worse. We could pull back on automation to keep the pilots alert, but we are increasingly relying on it to optimize resources (air space, fuel, airport take off and landing slots, and ya safety).

And...that's just it. Computers don't get bored. I suffer from some depression also (who doesn't!), but I find that my job keeps me busy enough that I can keep it in check. Imagine being a bit depressed and sitting in a cockpit doing nothing for a few hours at a time.